Fairstein helped set up a series of meetings between Weinstein’s lead defense lawyer and Martha Bashford, the head of the Sex Crimes Unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and a “close friend” of Fairstein’s, the New York Times reported.

Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. later declined to prosecute Weinstein over the March 27, 2015, incident, and last week said his decision was “guided by the sex-crime team.”

Fairstein — a best-selling novelist who in 2007 wrote a Vanity Fair column about wanting to make a movie with Weinstein — defended her decision to work for the since-disgraced producer by vouching for defense lawyer Elkan Abramowitz.

“Calling Ms. Bashford to tell her who Elkan was and to ask her to consider meeting with him is the kind of thing I do four to six times every year,” she told the Times.

The Times didn’t detail Fairstein’s consulting deal, but said the ex-prosecutor — celebrated for winning the conviction of “preppy killer” Robert Chambers in 1988 — didn’t believe the allegation against Weinstein.

In a Monday email to The Post, Fairstein said she called Bashford at the request of Abramowitz, who she described as a “friend of 25 years,” and not Weinstein.

“I never received a fee from either,” she wrote.

“I read documents and made an intro by phone.”

The Times’ report also revealed that an NYPD detective intervened during a secretly recorded encounter between accuser Ambra Batillana Gutierrez and Weinstein inside the Tribeca Grand Hotel, a day after she accused him of grabbing her breasts and trying to slip his hand up her skirt.

The plainclothes cop got worried when Weinstein “grew belligerent” while trying to coax Gutierrez, then 22, into a hotel room, the Times said, so he pretended to be a TMZ reporter seeking an interview with Weinstein.

The maneuver reportedly led Weinstein to “retreat from the hallway” and let Gutierrez escape out a side door.

The detective later identified himself to Weinstein, who agreed to go to a police station for questioning.

But Weinstein refused to answer any questions about Gutierrez’ groping allegations and instead asked for a lawyer, the Times said.

NYPD officials who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity denied a claim last week by Vance’s No. 2, Chief Assistant DA Karen Friedman-Agnifilo, who said: “The seasoned prosecutors in our Sex Crimes Unit were not afforded the opportunity before the meeting to counsel investigators on what was necessary to capture in order to prove a misdemeanor sex crime.”

“Why would we not call about Harvey Weinstein?” a senior police official said.

The same official said the recording — on which Weinstein apologized for touching Gutierrez and repeatedly promised he wouldn’t do it again — was enough evidence to charge him with misdemeanor sexual abuse.

“He admitted, twice, doing it. That’s probable cause to make an arrest,” the official said.

Vance — who is running unopposed for a third term in November — told the Times that he discussed the case with Bashford and Friedman-Agnifilo at least three times before accepting Bashford’s recommendation to drop it.

“I didn’t have any pushback on Martha’s opinion, mindful that Martha has greater expertise in sex crimes than I do,” he said.
Bashford declined to comment, the Times said.